Thanks Bill, Any preferences on brands. I am thinking of trying Freud Industrial. I like their Diablo blades but I only have thin kerf. I got a new cabinet saw so can now run full kerf blades. Have heard lots of good things about Forrest (except for the price!). Cant find much good info on CMT.

I was similarly baffled by all the choices…but, I stumbled onto this blade years ago: Tenryu GM-25540 10” Carbide Tipped Saw Blade ( 40 Tooth ATB Grind – 5/8” Arbor – 0.111 Kerf) . . . I never looked back! It’s the best blade I’ve ever used. The Gold Medal version is what I use exclusively now. It’s about $125.00 but, if you go to Amazon you’re likely to find a bargain under $100 (free shipping).

I have had really good results from my Ridge carbides. I preferr them to the Forrest blade I had before. There are many good ones out there but I havent seen them at Home Depot or Lowes. On line was the best way I found to get them.

The box stores don’t carry many, if any full kerf blades. Places like Rockler, Woodcraft, Infinity, Holbren, Amazon, Hartville Tool, Ebay, Carbide Processors and other woodworking specialty stores should have them. Infinity, Forrest, Freud Industrial, CMT Industrial, Ridge Carbide, Tenryu Gold series, Guhdo, and Amana Tool are among the best manufacturers who offer full kerf blades….all made in the US, Japan, Israel, Italy, UK, or Germany. Closeouts can offer some great deals on nearly any brand if they exist. Oshlun offers some good value blades made in China.

The best bang for the buck I know of is the Delta 35-7657 40T ATB full kerf blade, made in the USA for $18 + s/h from Cripe Distribution on Ebay. They combine shipping, so multiples make sense.

The Infinity Combomax (010-050) is a terrific 50T ATB/R combo that’s really easy to get good results with, performs extremely well in a lot of tasks, and is <$70.

The Ridgid blades were made by Freud AFAIK, but were all thin kerf, and the better ones are no longer made. They still paint their name on a disposable type stock blade.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

you can find some great deals on Ebay really great deals on Freud and Forrest I just bought a brand new CMT full 24T dado blade for 49.00 free shipping brand new, bought a Freud Safety dado for 20.00 plus 6.00 shipping a year ago, they had never been used, Freud is really cheap on ebay, look for the seller Saws4sale he has good deals